Victor James Muise is that frustrated with what’s happening in regards to the Qalipu enrolment process, he says he’s willing to put his life on the line.
The St. George’s Mi’kmaq elder said he is waiting for the enrolment process to be over again and if nothing changes with people on the Founders List getting denied then he will be going on a hunger strike in mid-May.
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Muise said Mi’kmaq people on the island of Newfoundland and been denied their rights since 1949 and now, in 2017-18, it’s happening again.
“To me, the whole Qalipu Band should be dismantled and the enrolment process restarted,” he said.
Muise said there are no housing programs, no land agreements, just payment for some drugs and transportation when travelling for certain medical reasons.
He said it’s stupid to deny people that were on the Founders List their enrolment, just because they went away to work or live in another province. He said the first enrolment list was bad enough but enrolment under the supplemental agreement is putting even more people out of the band – people that deserve to be there.
Muise said he wants Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to come to this province and speak to the people in this area and if it takes doing something drastic like going on a hunger strike, that’s what he will do.
“The only way is to have action,” he said.
Muise said his first course of action will be to circulate a petition, which he will be doing soon. If that doesn’t help he will set up camp near Main Gut in a wigwam and go on his hunger strike.
He is choosing that location because it’s central to the Bay St. George area.
While he didn’t say who else might be involved, he believes there will be others willing to join him.
Muise said when’s there’s something broken you try to fix it. He said government won’t do anything until Mi’kmaq people take action.
“People will die in the process. I’m a warrior and willing to die for my people,” he said.
Muise said he doesn’t want any comments on this action from chiefs or leaders on this issue, that it’s something he intends to do himself without outside interference.
He said he has no desire to live any longer until the federal government fixes the flaws and discrimination aimed at the Mi’kmaq People on island of Newfoundland.
Muise said stepping up behind a mike or going to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to him is essentially wasting time and that action has to be taken or this goes nowhere.
“We’re from a nation of people who married into the First Nations tribe. Let’s not let them steal our land and leave us landless,” he said.
